For Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Subtypes, Risk Factors Identified

the Cancer Therapy Advisor take:

According to new research published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, scientists from the International Lymphoma Epidemiology Consortium have quantified the risk associated with various patient factors for 11 different non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) subtypes.

By analyzing 20 studies conducted internationally containing 17,471 patients with NHL and 23,096 without the disease, the researchers pooled the data to assess the risk factors for various NHL subtypes.

They found that among NHL subtypes, risks differed significantly for alcohol consumption, certain occupations, cigarette smoking, family history of leukemia and multiple myeloma, and medical history factors. On the other hand, the risks for developing an NHL subtype were relatively similar for allergies, family history of NHL, hay fever, recreational sun exposure, and socioeconomic status.

For those with autoimmune disease, patients with a history of an autoimmune disease that activates B-cells or T-cells were much more likely to develop B-cell lymphomas or T-cell lymphomas, respectively.

Although it has been known that there are various risk factors for developing NHL, this is the first large international study to definitively determine the risk factors associated with each subtype of NHL.

Scientists have quantified risk associated with various patient factors for different NHL subtypes.

In a large international collaborative analysis of risk factors for non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), scientists were able to quantify risk associated with medical history, lifestyle factors, family history of blood or lymph-borne cancers, and occupation for 11 different NHL subtypes, including less common subtypes. Each year, more than half a million people worldwide are diagnosed with NHL, a diverse group of cancers of the immune system.

Although past research suggested different subtypes of NHL may have different causes, those individual studies lacked sufficient statistical power to show this definitively. To overcome this problem, over 100 scientists from the International Lymphoma Epidemiology Consortium pooled data from their studies to produce 13 papers published as a monograph in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute on August 30, 2014.

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